Many voiced their surprise when veteran pair Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson were strongly linked with Chelsea this week. The Blues clearly need to add some experience to their squad, but is this the right way to go about it?
When news broke of Chelsea’s reportedly serious interest in Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson this week, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d travelled back in time.
But no, this isn’t the summer of 2012. We’re a few weeks away from the 2026-27 Premier League season.
So why are Xabi Alonso’s side looking to recruit 35-year-old Welbeck and 36-year-old Henderson?
Combined Experience
Experience is the obvious place to start. Since the Clearlake investment group bought a majority stake in the club at the end of 2021-22, their policy has been to recruit young players on long-term contracts.
But in April, owner Behdad Eghbali hinted at potentially tweaking their model and adding some more experience to their core of young players.
“There is a plan. We reflect on the plan. We try to improve the plan and tweak the plan if it’s not working. The message is we’re committed. Can this be successful without winning? The answer is no. We’ve got to win,” Eghbali said at CAA’s World Congress of Sports event in Los Angeles.
“I think we’ve done a few things right, a lot of things right. We’ve got to be better on a few things, to add more ready-made players at this part of the project, to take [it] to the next level, to be consistent over time. We recognise we need balance. You tweak a model, you improve, you learn from mistakes.”
Chelsea had the youngest average starting XI age in the Premier League last season, at just 24 years and 194 days old. That was also the case in 2024-25 (24 years, 36 days) and 2023-24 (24 years, 232 days).
There was a serious lack of experience on their bench too, with the average age of Chelsea’s named substitutes last season being just 22 years, 83 days old – over a year and a half younger than any other team.
Chelsea Squad Profile 2025-26
Incredibly, Chelsea haven’t given a single minute of action to a player over the age of 30 in any of their last 123 matches in all competitions, since 39-year-old Thiago Silva’s last appearance in May 2024. But that run will come to an end in 2026-27 should Welbeck or Henderson arrive this summer.
It’s difficult to explicitly tie inexperience to lack of discipline, but there are obvious links between Chelsea being the youngest team in the Premier League over the last three seasons and the fact that they have picked up the most yellow cards (294) and red cards (14).
Chelsea also struggled to hold on to leads in 2025-26, with more points dropped from winning positions (19) than they won from losing positions (14). A league-high 17 of those came in home matches, which was three more than any other club in the Premier League.
Thirty different players made an appearance in the league for Chelsea last season, with none of those playing a game while over the age of 28. Those 30 players have currently played 2,184 Premier League matches combined, with none of them topping 180 (Pedro Neto, 180). Henderson and Welbeck are two of just 46 players to play 400+ times in the competition, with 863 Premier League appearances between them.
Some experienced heads could help manage games better.
Henderson’s Influence
When asked about the importance of bringing in Henderson last summer, Brentford boss Keith Andrews told the club’s official website: “He’s a big presence as I’m sure people are aware of and know. For us, the way he carries himself, his presence on the pitch, his leadership qualities; I think it [signing Henderson] did go a little bit under the radar.”
He went on to appear in 32 of their 38 league games in 2025-26, starting 22 times and playing 56% of possible minutes for the Bees.
Jordan Henderson 2025-26 Brentford
But Henderson’s role is more than an on-pitch one. He’s clearly a well-respected and influential voice off the pitch – something that was obvious in England’s World Cup campaign this summer after he was a surprise inclusion in Thomas Tuchel’s squad.
Ahead of Brentford’s final-day trip to Anfield to face his former club Liverpool, Andrews was keen to stress Henderson’s age wasn’t something that held him back.
“He’s been very good for us; he’s settled back into life in the Premier League when maybe some people doubted he could do that with the age he is. Naturally, there is a little bit of cynicism around players of a certain age,” Andrews said.
“His professionalism is as good as or the best I’ve ever seen: how he prepares for games, how he recovers in between games, his focus and desire to still be a top performer. It’s so impressive.”
Henderson can still offer a calm and measured presence in midfield, too, with the English midfielder averaging more passes per 90 than any other Brentford player in the Premier League last season (54.2). He also averaged the third-greatest distance covered per 90 in their squad (11.6km).
Is Welbeck Better than Ever?
Next season will be Welbeck’s 19th as a Premier League player, but he’s become more consistent in front of goal with age.
His 13 goals for Brighton & Hove Albion in 2025-26 was his most in a single Premier League campaign, beating his previous best from the season before (10). He also converted a higher proportion of his shots into goals than ever before in a Premier League campaign (23.2%).
Danny Welbeck Premier League Goals by Season
Creating chances wasn’t really an issue for Chelsea last season, with their total non-penalty xG of 60.2 being the fourth best in the Premier League. Converting them was the problem, with only 50 scored from those chances (excluding one own goal) – only Crystal Palace (20.9) and Wolves (11.6) suffered a bigger underperformance than Chelsea (10.2).
The only Chelsea player to score more goals than Welbeck in the Premier League last season was João Pedro (15), with Welbeck playing 411 minutes fewer than the Brazilian in the top flight.
Welbeck scored 12 non-penalty goals from a non-penalty xG total of 10.1. He also averaged his best xG per non-penalty shot in a Premier League season in 2025-26 (0.19), a combination of finding better positions to score from and a wiser shot selection than we’d previously seen in the English top-flight by the striker.
Over a third of Welbeck’s Premier League goals (34 of 90 – 38%) have arrived since he turned 32, with only 11 players scoring more goals in the competition after their 32nd birthday than he has. It’s extremely unlikely he’ll trouble Jamie Vardy’s record of 76 in this ranking, but a third successive season of reaching double figures for Premier League goals would move him into the top seven.
Should Welbeck join and score a goal in the league for Chelsea, he would enter a small group of players to score for six or more different clubs in the Premier League. Only 11 players have done this in the competition, with Craig Bellamy standing alone as the record holder with goals for seven different Premier League sides.
Would They Get Playing Time?
That’s a near-impossible question to answer, but there’s a good chance both would be sacrificing minutes on the pitch in the Premier League if they move from their current clubs.
There have been only 61 instances of an outfield player accumulating at least 2,000 minutes in a Premier League season while aged 35 or older across a 38-game Premier League season (since 1995-96). Thirteen of those have come in the last five Premier League campaigns, with three of those being Thiago Silva at Chelsea in 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Chelsea won’t play any European football this season after finishing in a disappointing 10th-place in the Premier League in 2025-26 and failing to win any cup competition. This means focus will be purely on domestic glory in 2026-27, and some added experience could help them achieve that goal.
Enjoy this? Add Opta Analyst as a .
Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over onX, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
Premier League Opta Stats